I-80

The Wyoming State Historical Society has published a new book about the controversy and conspiracy that surrounds Interstate 80 and its dangerous past. The book is called Snow Chi Minh Trail: The History of Interstate 80 between Laramie and Walcott Junction.

The 77 mile stretch of interstate is considered especially notorious for its tragic history. The book’s title refers to the mountainous roadway used by North Vietnamese soldiers to reach South Vietnam during the Vietnam War.

Wyoming’s stretch of Interstate 80 is notorious for dicey weather conditions and heavy truck traffic. But it’s also a great place to study how to make driving safer, and that’s why it’s the testing site for a collaboration between the Wyoming Department of Transportation and the University of Wyoming.

A new federal transportation bill working its way through congress should provide more money to Wyoming. Interim Wyoming Department of Transportation Director Bill Panos says in highway funding alone the bill provides the state with an increase of 24 million dollars.

“That’s a boon for Wyoming and will help us improve the highway system in our state, preserve what we have invested in over the last few years and make our highways safer.”

It will also provide the state with additional funding for a variety of other projects said Panos.

Winter weather this week caused I-80 to close across most of the state. The first major closure of the winter driving season was prompted by near zero visibility and blowing snow across much of interstate 80.

Sergeant David Wagener with the Wyoming Highway Patrol says the most important safety tip for winter driving is wearing your seatbelt, something he says everyone should be doing no matter what the weather conditions are.

A single-engine plane crashed east of Laramie Friday morning on Interstate 80. Albany County Undersheriff Rob DeBree says 67 year old Steven Stam from Holland, Michigan was traveling eastbound around 8am when he experienced engine trouble and was forced to make an emergency landing on the westbound lane of Interstate 80.

"He actually started to come down into the median area. May have possibly hit the median itself but not bad. And he was able to put it down and skidded off the highway at that location," says DeBree.

The familiar bronze bust of Abraham Lincoln that sits atop I-80’s highest point will be getting a makeover.

The statue will be taken down and transported to Eagle Bronze Foundry in Lander to be restored. It will be sandblasted with glass beads, highlighted, and resealed. Monte Paddleford, the owner at Eagle Bronze, says over time the elements take their toll on the statue’s luster. Once the statue is sandblasted, though, Paddleford says he thinks people will notice the difference.

Highway crashes on Wyoming Interstates are a common occurrence, but the back to back multiple vehicle crashes last month even got the attention of locals. It led to the latest discussion about traffic safety and whether more could be done. But experts say that highway safety, especially when it comes to interstate 80 has been on the minds of state Transportation officials for some time.

Nathan Brooks drives all over the country delivering goods as a long-haul trucker, and when I met him at a rest stop just outside of Laramie, Wyoming, he was about to start his favorite drive— back home to Alabama. Brooks has been a trucker for twenty-seven years and says the job is getting harder than it used to be.

“Everything is more expensive now. There is a lot more traffic on the road. And you are more likely to get caught up in some kind of accident.”

Ghost towns may conjure images of old shoot-outs, tumble weed rolling down dusty streets. But there are also more modern ghost towns with less romantic stories. Laramie photographer Doc Thiessen is documenting some of the towns along the Lincoln Highway bypassed by Interstate 80.

The Lincoln Highway is 100 years old this year, and Wyoming PBS will be screening a new documentary about it this weekend. Much of what was the Lincoln Highway in Wyoming is now Interstate 80, but parts of the original route are still separate. The film tells the story of the highway in Wyoming. Producer Tom Manning joins us now. He says the Lincoln Highway holds an important place in Wyoming’s history and in the history of the U.S. as a whole.

At first glance, it looks like another shuttered roadside business. The exterior is overgrown and the door is hard to find. By the look of things, you may wonder if this is the kind of place you’ll need a secret handshake to enter. What is this place exactly? It’s Pete’s Roc n Rye Club in Evanston. For our final stop on the Lincoln Highway, producer Erin Dorbin made it past the entrance and sent us this postcard.

America's first transcontinental roadway, the Lincoln Highway, turned 100 this year. To celebrate, we’re visiting a few one-of-a-kind stops along the route in Wyoming. Producer Erin Dorbin sent this postcard from Rock Springs.

Chances are, if you’ve driven the stretch east of Cheyenne along I-80 or Old Highway 30, you’ve seen it--that colossal white and turquoise roadside gem, the Teepee. You’ve probably also wondered, who lives there? Or simply, why a teepee? Producer Erin Dorbin sent us this postcard with some questions from Egbert.

This summer, the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office received a grant to survey buildings and landscapes along the I-80 corridor. Because I-80 and old US-30 roughly follow the nation’s first transcontinental highway, the project was called the ‘Lincoln Highway Survey.’ In honor of the highway’s 100th anniversary, we’ll make some stops along the road this week. Wyoming Public Radio’s Micah Schweizer begins our series by speaking with Beth King and Erin Dorbin from the State Historic Preservation Office.